YET ANOTHER AGONIZING ROAD DEFEAT FOR AZTECS
UNLV
72
AZTECS
70

LAS VEGAS 
“Sometimes,” San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said, “things happen in the heat of the moment.”

He was talking about the closing seconds of a 72-70 loss at UNLV on Saturday night — another wrenching, agonizing, disheartening road loss that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve gone differently. Down one with the ball, Fisher called told his team to run a play for Jamaal Franklin to penetrate off a ball screen from Skylar Spencer, either creating a shot for himself or drawing a defender and kicking to Chase Tapley in the corner.

There were 17.4 seconds left; the idea was to go at about 10.

At the other end of the floor, UNLV coach Dave Rice and his staff instructed their players how to defend the Aztecs.

They correctly predicted Franklin would get the ball, and they told Bryce Dejean-Jones not to let him drive off his preferred right hand — to force him left.

Things happen: Franklin waved off Spencer’s screen and then waited until the clock ticked inside five seconds to make a move, despite Fisher standing on the sideline urging him to attack sooner.

“Sometimes things happen in the heat of the moment, and it happened, and we didn’t win,” said Fisher, whose team lost for the first time in its last 31 games when leading at the half. “If he had found a way to throw one in at the end, we would have been jumping up and down. Unfortunately we didn’t.”

It was the second straight loss for the Aztecs — and third straight on the road — at the mercy of a referee’s whistle inside 20 seconds to go. At Air Force two weeks earlier, it was a questionable foul on JJ O’Brien in a tie game after Kamryn Williams appeared to have traveled, twice. On Wednesday, Colorado State guard Dorian Green converted a three-point play when Franklin was whistled for a block instead, as replays and coaches and TV commentators all suggested, a charge.

Now, Franklin and traveling.

Saturday’s call at the Thomas & Mack Center seemed the least egregious of the three, but that didn’t take the sting off another courageous road effort that goes in the L column. Or the rapidly fading chances of the Aztecs (18-7, 6-5). With five games remaining, they are in a three-way tie for third place with UNLV (19-7, 6-5) and Air Force, a full three games behind New Mexico.

“We just have to make plays at the end,” said O’Brien, who had a season-high 15 points, 11 in the opening 6½ minutes but none in the second half. “That’s been the story of a few games this year. We sometimes get ourselves in a hole, but we always fight back. We’ve just got to start making better plays at the end.